166 167 THE CLASS STRUGGLE FORMING WAR PSYCHOSIS which the most skeptical cannot but yield to. Sinking of hospital ships, etc. effectively put the brakes on rational interference with action. Some of the most famous Socialists, with full knowledge of Parasitic control and action, have succumbed. Feeling so overpowers as to urge action. Prof. Dewey unfounded assertion as to the Zeppelin method of arousing American war sentiments needs scarcely any refutation. No less a man than Taft said in a recent number of Leslies. We haven patriotism in our souls, and we won get it until those that are dear to us are killed or wounded.
And this will do more towards quieting the pacifist than thought control, etc. recent newspaper report has it that a number of boys enlisted to avenge the death of their friend, to one of them, relative, who went down with the first American ship to be sunk. Nothing novel about this psychosis, created by arousing an instinct or feeling.
In condemning the Socialists abroad these facts should be borne in mind. Masses are very suggestible. Their instincts and feelings appealed to in the proper ways, they will respond very easily. Not only that but the very ones whom they previously fought as Parasites they bend the knee to. The dog in slinking before his master, tail down, between his legs, acts under the stimulus of what McDougal calls the instinct of selfabasement which is useful in the struggle for existence, as it mollifies the threatening person or animal. This instinct is very easily aroused in humans. Especially so in dangerous times.
When in the middle of the night we hear the cry, fire, it is better to heed the warning and follow the crier, than to wait and investigate. In a panic or in war or in revolution Le Bon correctly notes the most insignificant persons become leaders at times and are followed. The reason precisely is the one here offered in danger even the tyrant and the onetime hated militarist elicits the instinct of submission that makes for solidarity.
The masses do not stop to question, but follow.
Masses thus are ruled by appeals to instincts and feelings which today are exploited in every possible way. But how can we account for the failure of internationalistic movements to prevent or stop the war?
Socialists as well played with the psychology of the masses. In their appeal were ethical, material and egoistical elements. The workers have to pay the price of the war in blood and suffering.
This is a serious deterrent involving the fundamental emotion of fear, self preservation, resentment, etc. Then, too, Socialists claimed that the wives and children would be in want, involving the parental instinct and the sentiment of pity. They pointed out the Illusion of Ownership, whereby Parasites have made masses believe that they own their country as much as they own the culture and religion of a nation. They saw the Illusion of Solidarity through which Parasites argued for a common interest of capitalist and worker. Seeing that all have a common interest in the preservation of the national culture, seeing that some of the royal blood has been spilt in the war, the workers have come to hold the Illusion of Solidarity involving a solidarity on economic grounds. Then, too, ethical elements were involved. There was Christianity, etc.
Between these forces, those of Parasitism and those of Socialism, raged, we said, a logical duel. What factors of a psychologic nature determined victory temporarily for the Parasite? number.
First, in favor of the capitalists were a number of things.
While Reason is controlled by Feeling, Feeling in turn is controlled by the material conditions of existence. The Illusion of Ownership was there, already implanted for centuries. The masses felt a material interest in the war, affecting either acquisition of new territory or preservation of their own.
Capitalism, hence, in the face of the Socialist onslaught, was on the defensive.
Le Bon formulated the law that the methods of arousing crowds to activity consisted in Affirmation, Repetition, Contagion which were backed up by Prestige of persons and institutions. But not only that, between two contending movements success depends on the amount and force of Affirmation, etc.